Robert Kuttner

Recently, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman christened the war aganst terrorism World War III. But that’s too apocalyptic. A better name would be Cold War II. The first Cold War was ”a prolonged twilight struggle,” in George Kennan’s famous phrase. It was punctuated with periods of hot war, in Korea and in Vietnam. But […]

George W. Bush has at last revealed the outline of his Medicare/drug benefit plan. One is reminded of Anatole France’s famous line that “the law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges.” Governor Bush’s plan allows the poor as well as the rich to choose to […]

Something Beyond the obvious tragedy troubled me about the case ofPeter Bos, the 31-year-old Jamaica Plain father who left his infant to perish in his car instead of taking her to day care. That something, I realize, is the role of class. The community reaction was appropriately appalled but surprisingly compassionate: Those poor people. How […]

I am at the age where my family and friends all seem to be coping with agingrelatives. And I can tell you that something has gone terribly wrong with both thehealth care system and the system of nursing care. People in their 80s and 90s, when their health starts to deteriorate, tend to have multiple […]

The biggest menace to the personal security of Americans may not be terrorism but government’s response to it. The administration has already rammed through an antiterrorism bill that allows normal due process and privacy protections to be waived if a prosecutor thinks some potential suspect has some remote connection to terrorism. Now the president has […]

House and Senate leaders are now deadlocked between a Republican House stimulus bill that is a shameless tax giveaway to large corporations and a Senate Democratic spending bill that is well intended but too paltry. The country is facing a serious recession as well as increased national security needs. The safety net is frayed. Joblessness […]